Planning - Opening sequence ideas from song lyrics

1. Paper Planes – M.I.A

Gangsters committing robberies, dealing drugs, and earning money, but later one of them discover one of their gang members is an undercover member of the FBI. Opening ends with someone discovering the badge.

Genre: Crime and Drama

Gangsters committing robberies, dealing drugs, and earning money, but later one of them discover one of their gang members is an undercover member of the C.I.D. Opening ends with someone discovering the badge.

Main character: C.I.D Agent

This narrative relates to the crime and drama genre as it has many elements of criminal behaviour in it. Having gangs and the law involved are codes and conventions of a typical crime and drama movie. This also links to the lyrics as it is mainly about drug dealing and crime.

All I wanna do is (BANG BANG BANG BANG!)

And (KKKAAAA CHING!)

And take your money

Pirate skulls and bones
Sticks and stones and weed and bongs
Running when we hit 'em
Lethal poison through their system

Some I some I murder
Some I some I let go

2. Billie jean – Michael Jackson

Comical scenes of a guy being chased by a girl for her son. Scene ends when she realises that her father’s son is actually someone else’s.

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Comical scenes of a guy being chased by a girl for her son. Scene ends when she realises that her father’s son is actually someone else’s.

Main Character: The young mother

This narrative relates to the romantic comedy genre because it is about the search for this woman’s lost father, which is related to lost love. The comical side to this movie would be how she is mistaken most of the time but doesn’t realise that the father of her baby is actually someone she has known for a long time. This relates to the lyrics as the line “Billie Jean is not my lover” can be interpreted as a guy saying it to the lady, as she feels that he may be her child’s father.

Billie Jean is not my lover

She's just a girl who claims that I am the one
But the kid is not my son
She says I am the one, but the kid is not my son

3. Chillin – Wale ft Lady Gaga

Someone just moved to a new country and finding hard to fit in/ two different lives. Culture clash is shown.

Genre: Teen Comedy

Someone just moved to a new country and finding hard to fit in/ two different lives. Culture clash is shown.

Main character: Teenage boy/girl from a foreign country

This narrative relates to the teen comedy genre as the lyrics talk about how someone is feeling incongruous to their setting. The antagonists for the main character could be racist bullies or just the feeling of not being able to relate and be part of social groups in school/college. It would be related to teenage life and the comical side to it would be the focus.

Lookin at, lookin at, lookin at me
Look at that, look how they lookin at me
Eyes all sticky like honey on bees
Look at that, look how they lookin at me

4. Beggin – Madcon

Boy chasing a girl he sees. They see each other on a bus/ street before. Then later they are at a restaurant and she gets scared as she thinks he is a stalker, and runs out taking a random umbrella from the side. He then chases her and then she runs into an alley way. He gets to her and she jumps. He wants his umbrella and then she feels guilty for misunderstanding him.

Genre: Romatic Comedy

Boy chasing a girl he sees. They see each other on a bus/ street before. Then later they are at a restaurant and she gets scared as she thinks he is a stalker, and runs out taking a random umbrella from the side. He then chases her and then she runs into an alley way. He gets to her and she jumps. He wants his umbrella and then she feels guilty for misunderstanding him.

Main Character: The man who chases the girl

This narrative relates to a romantic comedy genre as it shows the comical side to romance. The lyrics of this song “Put your loving hand out baby” could suggest the main character having secret feelings for this lady but may not be fully aware of it. This could raise many comical issues and therefore this genre would be a Romantic comedy.

Beggin, beggin you
Put your loving hand out baby
Beggin, beggin you
Put your loving hand out darlin

5. Digital girl – Jamie Foxx ft. Drake, The Dream and Kanye West

Two people meet over the net, don’t know what they look like and then meet coincidently and discover many uncanny things about each other. Scene ends when they exchange each others email address.

Genre: Love and Romance

Two people meet over the net, don’t know what they look like and then meet coincidently and discover many uncanny things about each other. Scene ends when they exchange each others email address.

Main character: Both the boy and the girl

For this film idea, I think this could be a dual narrative. This is because I think the main characters should be both the boy and the girl as the audience can see both sides of the story. They could both be narrating as they write about each event of their meetings in their diaries. This film would just be a romance as love would be the main focus in the film. The lyrics relate to this narrative as the line “So I pray that we never lose the connection” can suggest the two characters falling deep in love. Love is necessary as the code and convention from a romantic genre.

I just hit Alt....Tab
Switchin' in-between two convos
I should just call cabs
And bring em both here to the condo (Yeah)
Normally, it ain't a question
We would cross paths like an intersection
But she just too far away for affection
So I pray that we never lose the connection

6. Run this town – Rihanna ft Jay Z

Leaders loosing power of their town, town is in chaos and many gangs and crime is shown. Leader is then murdered and we don’t know by whom.

Genre: Crime and drama

Leaders loosing power of their town, town is in chaos and many gangs and crime is shown. Leader is then murdered and we don’t know by whom.

Main character: Leader’s assistant head

This narrative is also related to the crime and drama genre as politics and crime is the major issue. These are typical codes and conventions of a crime and drama film. Also, the lyrics, “only thing that’s on my mind is who’s gon run this town tonight” link to the politics side of how the town is out of control as too many crimes have been committed than usual.

So i keep doing my own thing,

walking tall against the rain,
victory’s within the mile,
almost there don’t give up now,
only thing thats on my mind is who’s gon run this town tonight,
heeeeey, heeeey, heeeey
who’s gon run this town tonite,

7. Wonder woman – Trey Songz

Superwoman living two lives, someone has an eye on her and discovers who she is; opening ends with the person finding out.

Genre: Action

Superwoman living two lives, someone has an eye on her and discovers who she is; opening ends with the person finding out.

Main character: Lady with super powers

This narrative is related to an action genre as supernatural ability is shown. The lyrics “With a back like that you fly like jets are you my wonder woman” show the idea of the supernatural powers. These are codes and conventions of an action film as many elements are stunts and special effects.

"The way you talkin girl you seem so invinceable
Its more than sexy girl the way that you take control
I wonder woman are you my kinda woman
With a back like that you fly like jets are you my wonder woman (are you)
Are you my wonder woman (are you)"

8. Live your life – Rihanna ft T.I

A young person running from a robbery. Parents chuck him out of the house. Then he sees a newspaper add for a film audition. But then a gang recognises him and he is on the run again.

Genre: Crime and drama

A young person running from a robbery. Parents chuck him out of the house. Then he sees a newspaper add for a film audition. But then a gang recognises him and he is on the run again.

Main character: Teenage boy

This narrative is related to the crime and drama genre as crime is a major issue. This is part of the codes and conventions of a crime and drama genre film as we see people breaking the law. The lyrics “Your steady chasing that paper” suggest how the main character will be in a struggle for money as it is referred to “paper”.

You’re gonna be a shining star, in fancy clothes, and fancy car-ars.
And then you’ll see, you’re gonna go far,
Cause everyone knows, just who you are-are.
So live your life, ay ay ay.
Your steady chasing that paper



Overall, our main idea as a group was to combine the two songs lyric ideas of "Paper Planes" and "Chillin".

Film Review - Badlands

Personally, in my opinion I think “Badlands” was not interesting to watch at all. First of all, the story line was not exciting at all. Also the opening of this film was just the main character (the girl) narrating her past, and throughout the whole movie she narrates. I think that this ruined the surprises that were yet to come as she tells the audience and then we see it happen. This film took the idea from “Bonnie and Clyde” that is also about a man and a woman who commit a series of crimes. We also watched the opening scene of that film, and to be honest “Bonnie and Clyde” seems a lot more interesting as it grabbed the audience’s attention. The audience were not confused at any point during “Badlands” and the film had no suspense. Also the acting was very poor and they did not seem really realistic, especially the girl. This loses the audience’s attention and therefore makes a film unsuccessful. There were some shocking scenes but they were not effective because they didn’t seem realistic at all. The ending of “Badlands” was also quite pointless, as the girl just narrated the ending of the film too, and she didn’t show any emotion in the film.

Analysis of Film openings

Memoirs of a Geisha – Rob Marshall (mainstream)

Target Audience:

• Quite a predictable opening – for example when the sisters were kidnapped, as the audience we could tell where the story would lead to.
• Bad weather and dark setting attracts the audience’s attention, for example, the audience would want to know what is happening in such a mysterious place. It gives an enigmatic feel to the audience.

Shots/Storyline/Dialogue/Sound:

• Japanese dialogue without subtitles confuses audience which keeps the audience watching
• Sound of thunder ( diegetic sound) attracts audience’s attention
• Low key lighting on antagonists
• Storyline about two sisters sold off by family to live in a Geisha house in Japan.
• Establishing shot used for example to show the sea and where the family lives.
• Close ups used to show facial expressions

Characters/Setting:

• Innocent victims – sisters
• Sad opening
• Dark setting- low lighting- night time

Water – Deepak Metha (independent)

Target audience:

• Started with information about the village.
• Very quiet opening – no sound
• Starts off happy, ends sad

Shots/Storyline/Dialogue/Sound:

· Starts off with non- diegetic music- sitar

· Diegetic sound used – cart

· Sad dialogue- mother dies

· Story prediction: about a girl who grows up in a village

· Establishment shot to show the village

Characters/Setting:

• Mischievous girl- innocent
• Set in an Indian Village
• Peaceful setting – nice environment

White Chicks – Keenan Ivory Wayans

Genre- comedy

Camera:

· Necessary to have the production companies names in the opening

· Very effective because soundtrack keeps you watching and has a fast beat

· It is mainstream because the title and camera shots used are very advanced. For example, the high angle shot of the city.

· Establishment shot of city and stores.

Sound:

· Non- diegetic music and diegetic sound, for example soundtrack is non diegetic and the sound of cars is diegetic

· Comical dialogue keeps you watching

· Soundtrack is effective as it suits the environment shown.

· Some comical soundtrack used in the fighting scene which takes the seriousness away. Very light hearted salsa music used.

Editing:

· Shots speed up during the fighting scene which makes it more interesting to watch

· Still shot reverse shots are used in conversation- medium pace.

Mise-en-scene:

· Unusual/comical

· Set in a small gangster town in America - Large Spanish community.

· Unusual costume made to look funny attracts audience’s attention

· Hair and make up is realistic to characters

· Main characters are the Wayans Brothers.

Pan’s Labyrinth – Guillermo Del Toro

Camera:

· Starts off with information about the story

· Advanced animation movie

· Released by a company called Optimum

· Spanish film

· Effective because it has a serious opening – keeps audience engaged

· Mainstream because of high technology (animation) and more money has been spent on it – more marketing

Sound:

• Spanish dialogue – narrator – speaking as in someone is telling a fairy tale
• Diegetic sound of car
• Non – diegetic sound used as a soundtrack

Editing:

• Different transitions on some shots – girl dying, camera angle twists
• Animation of fantasy world added in

Mise-en-scene:

• Low key lighting
• Character introduced straight away
• We see the girl dying in first shot – blood makes it realistic and effective
• We see fantasy world then real world

What differences are there between an Independent film opening and a Mainstream film opening?

Crash – Paul Haggis (mainstream)

Genre- Thriller

Opening:

• Credits
• Serious non – diegetic music
• Images of moving lights (cars) in a dark environment
• Character narrates
• Dialogue and facial expressions add to serious mood which engages audience
• Credits carry on after every shot transition
• We hear characters speech and then fades onto the characters which add a mysterious effect
• Close up shot used to sow facial expressions and OTTS shown in conversation
• Outdoor/night/artificial high key lighting used on characters
• Dialogue is mysterious and confusing to audience
• Accident and a crime scene
• Film title is introduced last on the right side of the screen in small blue letters.
• From dialogue we can tell this film is about racism

Little Miss Sunshine – Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (independent)

Genre- Comedy

Opening:

• Starts off with non diegetic music and a blank screen – engages audience
• Close up of a girl watching TV – diegetic sound of the TV (soundtrack continues)
• The opening shows each character in the family’s life in some way and tells us about their personalities. For example, the shots of the girl watching TV is watching Miss America which is her dream as she mimics the reactions on TV.
• No credits are introduced in the beginning
• Sound track is used all the way through the opening.
• Predicted storyline: there is going to be a change in each characters life later in the film.

Similarities:

· Both movies start off with a soundtrack

· Title introduced towards the end of the opening

· Both have engaging openings, for example in Crash we want to know what the character is talking about, where as in Little Miss Sunshine we want to know what the girl is watching.

Differences:

· Credits are shown in the opening of Crash

· More transitions used between shots in Crash

· Little Miss Sunshine doesn’t use any special effects

· Crash is a serious genre than Little Miss Sunshine which is comedy

What differences are there between an Independent film opening and a Mainstream film opening?

There are many differences between an Independent film opening and a Mainstream film opening. This is because many mainstream films have a high budget to spend on their production where as Independent films have a low budget. For example, in a mainstream film opening, there could be many special effects added in which can engage the audience. Where as in an Independent film opening, the opening may not have such a dramatic feel as in a mainstream film. For example, in the opening of “Crash”, the character narrating left the audience confused about what has happened and what will happen next. This is because what the character's dialogue was quite confusing for the audience to understand straight away. This is what the audience need to feel in order to make the film a success. But in “Little Miss Sunshine” the opening did attract the audience’s attention as we saw a close up the girl’s eyes in the first shot. As the audience it makes us curious to know what she is watching and why she finds it so interesting. Although this did not have a great dramatic feel, it still engaged the audience in its different way.

Institutions of large production companies also help in the marketing of films. With mainstream films, as they have a high budget they can distribute the film to many companies and make it international. Where as Independent films don’t really have that advantage and are known only nation wide. However, some independent movies can become mainstream such as “Slumdog Millionaire” by Danny Boyle. Although this movie also had a low budget and advanced technology wasn’t used, the intuitions that came across this film promoted it to a larger market. This is how this film became a huge success, especially with the public. Production companies that usually back mainstream films are 20^th Century Fox and Columbia. Monogram and Republic support Independent films.

Cinematography also has an important role when making films, as people judge the overall look of a film. For example, in the mainstream film “Pans Labyrinth” it uses animation to show a fantasy world, which shows that a lot of money has been spent on it. Where as in “Little Miss Sunshine” there are no special effects and it is a very simple movie as advanced technology has not been used. Therefore mainstream films are always more advanced in their cinematography, budget and institutions than independent films.

Cutaway scene evaluation

In this task, my main learning objective was to achieve how to use the camera promptly according to our storyboard sequence. This is because it was a different role than to my previous task. I did this by, for example, when I was given the storyboard, I set the camera to all the angles and shots of how we planned them.

Personally, I feel that this was one of the weakest tasks I have done so far. One weakness was our timing. For example, we were only given 10 minutes worth of planning and less than 30 minutes to film. To improve, I think we should sit together as a group and discuss the planning. This is because I was sent off to set up the camera and I was not aware of what to shoot, and as Antoinette had to explain the storyboard to me it wasted our filming time. As a team, I feel it was working quite slow. For example, if we planned well in the start then we wouldn't have wasted time while filming.

I also think our previous task was much better as it was planned well, and even though there were more obstacles in the previous task, I feel we still were able to execute our task well. For example, we planned well the day before we started filming which did not waste any lesson time. However, as we were filming we did not have to show many different techniques as the task was to simply show a cutaway scene. For example, as it was a shorter scene, it made it easier to film as there were just 6 shots.

However, I feel that when it came to filming, some of our storyboard sequence was not correct. For example, in shot 3 we were confused about what it really was. Then to solve this issue we shot the scene as we went along to make continuity. We did this so it made sense to our story. Our filming was also slowed down. For example, as we were filming outside we had to wait for silence and made sure people were not in the background. This task was quite hectic as well and at times. For example, towards the end we ran out of time and we had to rush the last shots. This made our task unsuccessful.

Now I have experienced the positive and negatives, in future short film tasks I will now know what exactly to expect and make sure we plan well. For example, I will make sure that as a group we ensure that everyone has a good understanding of what and how we are filming before we start. In my opinion I feel that I did achieve my learning objective and I feel that although there were many obstacles during filming, I was still able to execute my task well. For example, when I knew what angle the shot is taken from it was simple to set the camera there. I also felt comfortable to film and I gained confidence to use a camera well.

Digital and Analogue Film making

Analogue filming:

In the 20^th century analogue filming was mainly used as it was newly introduced. It hasn’t been long since this traditional method of filming became more advanced with new technologies. But as we are progressing into the 21^st century, we should not forget the realism and the real quality of watching classic films, all made from analogue filming. Hollywood’s all time classics such as “Marry Poppins” (1964) produced by Walt Disney, had the budget of $600 000. “Bugsy Malone” (1976) had the budget of $1 million US dollars. Although analogue filming can be expensive and a longer process, it is the time spent that makes quality in a good film. Analogue films also have a real factor which I believe engages the audience. It worked well in that time period and I feel it should always be remembered.

Digital V Analogue:

Digital filming is now the new way of creating and editing films. It is a shorter process than analogue and easily accessed. However, people argue that digital filming is very unrealistic and production costs too much money. Special effects can show unrealism and it may loose the connection between the film and the audience as they cannot relate to it. But sometimes special effects enable the audience to escape into a fantasy world which makes entertainment as the audience have not seen anything like it before. Although production and the special effects involve a lot of cost, it still makes good blockbuster movies. It is also the same for analogue films, money is also spent on the production and yet we still resulted in good all time classics that are even popular today.

Another argument is that digital filming equipment can be accessed by anyone and we can film whatever we please, as technology has become so advanced that we can do this even at home. This is because everyone especially young people can buy a small HD video camera and create their own movies in their own personal ways. Unlike analogue is too complex and hard to make changes, as in digital you can always add or delete elements such as background noise. Even though we may have digital technology to improve certain elements in film production, many years back directors were still able to create enjoyable blockbuster hits as back then, the audience had small expectations. However too many digital films are ruining the beauty of old films and are starting to manipulate the way today’s generation think about old movies. For example, on TV if a film is black and white, people automatically change the channel because now some of those types of films are frowned upon. This is only because digital technology has taken over Hollywood and as an audience we always expect to watch something new and interesting.

Today in the media industry, we have to always be ahead of the audience’s expectations. We have to move on into the 21^st century with more advanced technology on our side to enhance the feel of not only watching the movie, but making the audience feel that they are also involved. I believe it is important that the audience can relate to a movie’s storyline and also feel fantasy experiences. For example, now we have movies in 3D which really do put the audience in the film situation. I think this is real entertainment and as people are expecting more from films, the media industry will continue to find new techniques of keeping us as an audience entertained. Also it does not matter how much money is spent on a film whether it’s analogue or digital. If it relates to many audiences, and has a great storyline, with great quality captured on the camera and if it is executed in the correct way, any movie could be a worldwide blockbuster.

Here is a great video to explain further points on both digital and analogue film making :